Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

12-18-89 Catharine MacKinnon, whose book, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law [Catharine A. MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1987); I finished reading this book on 15 April 1988], crystalized my thinking about feminism and law, has apparently accepted a professorship at the University of Michigan Law School, which is generally recognized as one of the five best in the country. I’m not surprised. MacKinnon has just published a book on political theory (Toward a Feminist Theory of the State [Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1989); I finished reading this book on 7 July 1992]) and has been active in the anti-pornography movement. (She and Andrea Dworkin [1946-2005] drafted an ordinance for the cities of Indianapolis and Minneapolis.) She has taught at Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada and at the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. There was great opposition to her one-year appointment at Yale, but she squeaked through. The nice thing about the Michigan job is that it will immediately give MacKinnon credibility and respectability within legal circles. Before, it was too easy to dismiss her as an ideological hack—someone on the fringes of the legal academy. Now she is in a position of prestige and power. I learned of the most recent move in my University of Michigan alumni magazine, which arrived today. There were several letters remarking on the anti-MacKinnon letters that had been published in an earlier issue. I gather that the alumni magazine interviewed her. This generated a host of negative letters from alumni, which in turn generated several letters from MacKinnon defenders. One thing about MacKinnon: You either love her or hate her. [MacKinnon is still at the University of Michigan.]